Letter: Sadness at levels of hatred aimed at Eastern Europeans
I am writing to you to express my concern and sadness regarding Europeans in the UK, especially the "new bloc" or "Eastern Bloc" as some might call us.
There is hatred expressed by a lot of local people towards us which is seen mostly on social media which I think is exacerbated by many controversial articles spilled by news agencies.
Let me tell you about myself and my family. I was born in Russia to a Russian mother and a Lebanese father. Later on I moved to Latvia and finished my medical school and got married to my wife (Latvian) whilst there. It happened that Latvia joined the EU by then and we decided to come to the UK in pursuit of a better life.
We arrived in 2007 and had full financial support from parents until I got a job as a doctor. Eight years later we have two beautiful London and Shrewsbury-born children who only speak English Both of us have permanent jobs in Shrewsbury Hospital, a mortgage, a good life overall. We haven't been an economic burden at any point throughout our stay. We have not committed any offences and are not planning to. We have not claimed any benefits and not stolen anybody's job.
I am sure there are a lot of people like us, but there are also the type everybody talks about. We have seen EU citizens coming here getting houses for free, taking expensive holidays when we as working people didn't have either time or money to do that, and conning your government and your councils of money and benefits. I have also seen EU citizens with criminal records getting UK nationality. We had a small glitch and had to wait another five years.
What I am trying to say is there are good and bad EU citizens from the Eastern Bloc. However, with what you hear and read these days I feel somehow guilty of causing harm to Britain, a country I really love and whose values I respect and adhere to.
I have been thinking of writing this for a long time just got the guts to do it today. I am concerned the media is labelling all Europeans harmful immigrants where it's not the case and am worried about my children growing up here. Criticise but please don't generalise. We are not all the same.
Name and address supplied
